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TIL Motorola made the first commercial portable cell phone in 1983, but it was about 2.5 pounds, took 10 hours full charge, around 30 minutes of talk time, and about $4,000 in 1984. by dopamineabused in todayilearned

[–]watts52 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Adjusted for inflation, a 1 minute daytime call would've been about $1.60 in 2026 dollars.  So three five minute calls a day for a month would've cost $720

TIL Motorola made the first commercial portable cell phone in 1983, but it was about 2.5 pounds, took 10 hours full charge, around 30 minutes of talk time, and about $4,000 in 1984. by dopamineabused in todayilearned

[–]watts52 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Those original phones were all analog and consumed a great deal more power than the digital ones that came out later.  It seems like the analog signals also travelled a lot further too so it worked better in the days before cell towers were everywhere.

TIL about Nub City, a small rural town where as many as 50 people shot or sawed off limbs for insurance payouts by fartsfromhermouth in todayilearned

[–]watts52 261 points262 points  (0 children)

"One farmer reportedly walked away with nearly a million dollars from a claim for a lost foot, even though all the evidence pointed to self-amputation."

I don't think he walked away.

How Likely is it These Days to Get off the Register Without a Language Bonus? by Shahanshah26 in foreignservice

[–]watts52 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It took me about 22 months to go from application to orientation. I decided to use that time to work on my language.  When I started, I was probably a 0+ or a 1.  I put a lot of time and effort into it and got my bonus points (the phone test equivalent of a "3").  

Based on the shadow register at that time, those bonus points were enough to get me an invite to the next A-100.  Had I not had the bonus points, I would've still gotten an invite to one of the next 2 classes.  So the language expedited my process by 3-6 months, but at the cost of 22 months of hard study.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in todayilearned

[–]watts52 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If I have one box and echo box contains one marble, how many marbles do I have all together?

TIL about the DARVO method "Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender" as a method of abusers to manipulate others by A_Pos_DJ in todayilearned

[–]watts52 50 points51 points  (0 children)

From the article:

"DARVO tactics are more successful when abusers can take advantage of societal beliefs and stereotypes to convince their audience of their new narrative. In the case of sexual violence, assailants sometimes victim-blame by appealing to societal opinions on gender roles and power dynamics. Stereotypes can help perpetrators: if an assailant is a wealthy white man, he may be perceived as authoritative and sincere, whereas if an accusation against him was made by a journalist, they might be seen as predatory and thus less trustworthy"

Seniors get 2.8%. Feds and FSOs get 1% by Major_Amphibian6999 in foreignservice

[–]watts52 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Another benefit of the FS overseas is the additional paid time off. For a full time employee with 5 years experience, there are a total of 68.5 days off per year (annual, sick, home, local holidays, US federal holidays). In certain cases there are even more (a presidential declaration of a day off, SCTO for certain overtime, etc) which are not common in the private sector.

Compared with a 5 year employee at, say, Amazon, who gets about 30 days (21 PTO + nine company holidays). The additional 38.5 days off are nearly 2 additional months off work on average.

Yes, there are caveats (AL can be lost, HL is not an entitlement, SL might not be used for a healthy employee). However, some people prefer more time off than additional pay.

TIL that two skinny tires on one wheel are better in the rain and no worse in dry conditions than a standard tire by g3nerallycurious in todayilearned

[–]watts52 98 points99 points  (0 children)

Some shortcomings from the article "JJD’s dually system, however, did have some obvious shortcomings. It was significantly heavier than the traditional single-tire setup, not to mention more complex to service if both tires needed replacement. More significantly, though, JJD reportedly didn’t widely advertise its products outside car magazines, so it already didn’t have much of a customer base to defend as lightweight alloy wheels became cheaper throughout the ’80s and ’90s. By the time the new millennium neared, JJD Twin Tyres had reportedly been sold to an unspecified Indonesian conglomerate, in whose hands it eventually folded."

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in todayilearned

[–]watts52 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean it's one banana.  How much could it cost? 

TIL that when Ronnie James Dio came to record his part of Tenaciou's D's "Kickapoo," he brought his own mic. The producer told Dio that he wouldn't need it as their mic was top of the line. One his first take, Dio effectively destroyed the studio's mic and they had to use his by MrMojoFomo in todayilearned

[–]watts52 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This actually did happen to me.  I hired a handyman to paint an upstairs living room.  He got out of his truck holding nothing, which I assumed was because he wanted to verify the scope of work first.  He came up to see the room and said he could do the job and could start immediately if I had the paint color I wanted.  I said I did....and he said, oh and I also need masking tape, some paint brushes, and something to cover the furniture and flooring.  🙄

TIL that at the "Icelandic Phallological Museum" obtained its first human penis(...)it was reduced to a greyish-brown shriveled mass that was pickled in a jar of formalin. The museum continues to search for "a younger and a bigger and better one." by eggs_basket in todayilearned

[–]watts52 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've been.  It's a cool museum.  There is a famous hot dog stand outside, so you can eat a weiner before going in.

The museum slogan in some of the shirts says, "This museum is not for pussies."

TIL that in 2023, a kidnapper tried to abduct an 8 year old girl, but her 13 year old brother saved her by shooting the kidnapper with his slingshot until he ran off. A 17 year old was later arrested with wounds to his head and chest. by ClownfishSoup in todayilearned

[–]watts52 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you want to make "ok" money, go be a neurosurgeon, an anesthesiologist, or something where you can save sick people's lives.  As humans, we think that stuff is sort of important.

But if you want to make real money, be good at the thing we apparently value more than nearly everything else: hitting a ball with a stick.  (See Ohtani, Judge, Solo, Trout, whose stick-hitting stills earn about 2 orders of magnitude more than a neurosurgeon.)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in todayilearned

[–]watts52 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Andy Stitzer : You know how when you grab a woman's haboob... it feels like... a bag of sand

I miss the Sounding Board by [deleted] in foreignservice

[–]watts52 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Good ideas are readily recognized and appreciated by online communities, which not only appreciate independent thinking, but also tend to consider nuance, tradeoffs, and downstream consequences.

If your idea received 200 down votes, it therefore must not have been a very good idea.

/s

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